Is he gone?
Good.
OK. A typical Floor Plan for the towers. I suspect the mechanical floors might have been beefed up a bit.
[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=176&pictureid=1423[/qimg]
In mechanics, the geometric property that defines the ability of any member to resist bending is (improperly, but casually) called the moment of inertia. (It's correctly identified as the "2nd moment of area").
Numerically, in a rectangular beam, it given by:
I = b h3/12.
Where b = width of beam
h = thickness of beam
This shows that the stiffness of the beam goes as the cube of the thickness and only linearly with the width. So, if you double the thickness of a beam, it gets 8 times stiffer. If you double its width, it gets only 2 times stiffer.
[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=176&pictureid=1416[/qimg]
In the picture above, (if these were diving boards) you're looking at the thickness of the beams. The width runs into the page.
Diving boards are intentionally made thin, because you want them to flex.
The point is that, when the diving board above bends, as with someone standing on it, the material fibers along the top of the board have to elongate. They go into tension. The fibers along the bottom side of the board have to shorten. They go into compression. There is a plane of fibers half way between the top & bottom that stays the same length (as when straight). This is called the Neutral Axis, and it undergoes no stress. The distribution of stress goes linearly from max tension at the top fibers to zero stress to max compression at the bottom of the board.
The fibers that are along the top & bottom are doing the maximum amount of work. The fibers near the neutral axis are doing almost none. That is exactly why, in order to get the stiffest beam possible for the least amount of material, you move as much material as possible as far away from the neutral axis as possible. When you do this, you end up with an "I" beam. Very efficient for resisting gravity loads in bridges. Turn the beam sideways, in the form of an "H" and it will be not nearly as stiff against vertical bending loads.
You can see these beams, and their orientation in the Floor Framing Diagram above. Note that the four corner beams (and one in the center) are all oriented to make an "H". All the rest of the beams are oriented to make an "I".
In the case of the towers, swaying motion of the towers at the top was one of the biggest problems that they faced. People were getting sick in initial testing. (Done secretly in a Seattle dentist's office..!!)
Tying the core to the outer walls of the tower increased it thickness by a factors of 1.5 and 2.4, in the two directions. To a reasonable approximation, this increased the stiffness of the tower by a factor of 3.4 & 13 in the two directions.
Let's have a show of hands... How many people think that Skilling & Robertson would NOT have securely tied the core columns to the peripheral columns and taken advantage of this increased resistance to swaying & projectile vomiting on the upper floors of their buildings?? OK, I see two: Heiwa & Bill Smith.
OK, how many people think that, if the core columns were, in fact, securely tied to the peripheral columns thru the flooring system, that the flooring system would NOT provided lateral support for the core columns? What a coincidence... Two hands again.
Hopefully, I've made my point.
Tom